Chōchin
by YouCantGetThereFromHere
Summary: Original story but using the Death Note concept of shinigami. A little boy is sick in hospital and has a short conversation with a death god.


-Chōchin-

Characters: If anyone can figure it out, I will give them a Starbucks cookie.

Note: _*Hikaru - From Japanese "light" or "radiance".*_ I have fun that way. ^^

With the realization that he was no longer alone, the boy opened his large brown eyes. He was instantly wide awake, unable to go back to sleep.

Nothing was different from when the nurse had checked on him in the night, only the ward was now lit up by the large windows that made the room cold and kept all the children tightly tucked into their covers. The nasty smell of disinfectant still stung his little nose. Hikaru hated the hospital and right now it was a little worse because he was the only boy on the ward who was awake this early in the morning, and he was _*being watched*_.

He sighed softly and sat up, lifting his head to the dark, winged figure at the foot of his bed.

Yellow eyes met his, curved lips held a serene smile, but the expression showed neither kindness nor cruelty. Clawed fingers moved softly as they hung at the creatures sides, making no sound. The wings were folded neatly as his -or her?- back, Hikaru remarked to himself, as they weren't needed in that moment.

He pulled his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around them as he looked up. "I know you," he whispered, but then realized that this wasn't true. "Or I know what you are. You're a death god."

The death god -that was undeniably what it was- pulled a barely visible frown and then nothing at all happened for several seconds. Finally Hikaru heard the quiet, rasping voice in his head, saying; "You can see me." It was stating a fact rather than a question and he nodded. The death god hadn't used its mouth to speak at all.

"I've seen your friends here," he explained, "they come for us when we die."

The death god silently nodded. "Yes."

Hikaru knew he should be scared, but somehow, he wasn't. So many children he had met, so many friends he had made, had left with one of these creatures. He knew exactly where they went; or rather, he didn't, but he knew they wouldn't come back. He was a little jealous, but he knew that it was only a matter of time until it was his turn.

He felt dizzy. Words were spinning inside his mind, images of faces, places, moments. _*Farewell, mother, farewell, father, farewell, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, farewell, sister. I'm sorry I wasn't careful. I'm sorry I got sick. But... don't be too sad. Perhaps next time...?*_

"Have you come to get me?" he asked the death god before the silence could get too loud.

The death god studied him for a while and Hikaru imagined he could see what it was thinking. How did the minds of death gods work? Were they malicious? Happy? Bored? Did they like what they did? Could you bargain with them?

"You're awake," was the perplexing reply, and before Hikaru could think of a suitable answer, the death god continued; "So I don't think so."

The dizziness stopped, and Hikaru relaxed. He was almost disappointed.

"But then... who?", he asked, glancing around the room at all the other children. There were five and he knew each of them by name. There had been seven when he had come here and he knew he would never forget any of their names. Was it a good thing to be left behind? What were they all doing that he wasn't a part of?

His and the death god's gazes fell upon the girl sleeping curled up to the right of Hikaru's bed. Her name was Hotaru. She had been at the hospital since before Hikaru came in, didn't usually sleep much, but often coughed and kept the others awake. But she was all her father had and she shared the cakes he often brought her.

Hikaru realized in that moment that he liked her. He didn't know if he wanted to marry her, but he knew he would miss her smile, her jokes, her father's cakes. He remembered doing a puzzle with her right on the very bed she was sleeping in. As the death god moved away from his bed and over to her's, a powerful sense of loss gripped him and held him tightly, making it hard to breathe, but he tried to stay calm outwardly. His father never liked it when he cried, yet he couldn't surpress a sniffle.

The death god, bent over Hotaru's sleeping form, turned around, now almost at eye-level with Hikaru. Its wings looked huge at this angle and as he glanced past them and up into the yellow, cat-like eyes Hikaru no sooner felt a tear roll down his cheek than the death god was already catching it on the back of its long finger. The expressionless lips *almost* smiled.

"Don't cry. I won't hurt her. She isn't afraid," the voice said in his head, and Hikaru nodded solemnly, biting his bottom lip to stop any more tears or even sobs escaping him as the death god turned back around. As if on cue, Hotaru sighed and nuzzled into her pillow more deeply... then, Hikaru watched as the death god scooped her up in its arms like the most precious doll, her light form sleeping in its arms while her body remained in the bed.

The death god began to move away, floating slowly toward the end of the aisle and into the grey sunlight streaming through the window at the bottom of the room.

Hikaru swalloped the lump in his throat and cried "Wait!"

The death god half-turned once more, not looking at him, but listening patiently.

"W-will you be back?" he asked and was angry at his voice for shaking. His little fingers gripped his sheet tightly. There were so many things he wanted to ask but he couldn't bring himself to. He knew he didn't have the time. He knew he would get the time ...some other time.

The death god's reply might as well have come years later, for how long it felt to wait for the answer. It said; "not for a while now." Then it and Hotaru were gone through the window, leaving not a trace that they had ever been there.

Watching the spot they had disappeared to, Hikaru breathed out and breathed in and breathed out and looked at the unchanged, still shape in the bed next to him.

Turning his back to it, he covered himself head to foot in his bedsheet and until the nurses came for the morning checkups, he couldn't get back to sleep.

_*Because the death gods come at night,*_ he thought, _*I may never sleep again.*_


End file.
